Blogging guidelines

What is this blog about?

If you’ve read the blogging resources page, you know how to post on the SCIE 300 blog as well as comment on other posts. But what are you going to write about? SCIE 300 is a science communication course, so we would like to see posts about any aspect of science communication. If you like, you can tailor your blog posts to course content. Here are some suggestions:

Have you seen a piece of research presented in an interesting way? Tell the group about it and include why you thought it was effective.

Do you have a library research tool you like to use? Share it with the group and explain why you like it.

How about some statistics related topics? Should we screen for prostate cancer? Is DNA evidence alone enough to convict in a criminal trial? Should the “long-form” census be saved?

Have you read an abstract of an academic paper that you think summarized the research well (or poorly)? Let the group know!

Is there jargon in your field of science that drives you crazy? Post your thoughts here and suggest better terms or phrases you can use instead.

Did you read something about science in a popular magazine or newspaper that is misleading or downright wrong? Vent here!

On the other hand, have you seen good coverage by the mainstream media of scientific research? Deliver your praises on the SCIE 300 blog.

Are there current issues in science that you think should be discussed with broader audiences? Well, discuss them!

Have you seen methods of getting community members involved in scientific research? Blog about it!

With the start of a new year, there are many “Best of 2010” lists circulating online — including this list of lists related to science stories. Do you have your own list? What do you think of these lists?

Remember: these are just examples. As long as it’s related to the course, your blog posts can be about anything. You can create new categories in which to put your posts, but we’ve also created a few categories to get you started:

Issues in Science

Science in the News

Public Engagement

Science Communication

Communicator Profiles

There are also some categories for the different fields of science. Remember that you can categorize a blog post in multiple places, so feel free to select or create more than one category for your posts. Don’t forget! Your posts will also need tags.

We’ve populated the blog with a few posts to get things rolling. With everyone involved, there promises to be a lot of great discussion on the SCIE 300 blog.